Modernist Route: 06. Modernist kiosk

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Routes · Subcategory: Modernist route · Year: 1923 · Authors: Rafael Massanet y Faus

In 1923 and in the north chamfer at the former Cervantes Park [now San Telmo Park] an old kiosk by Fernando Navarro was repaced by a new one designed by Rafael Masanet Faus, for  licensee Pablo Castellano Felipe; this is known currently as the modernist kiosk. The building was laid out by Masanet on three floors: basement, ground floor and attick, corresponding to kitchen, bar and storeroom respectively. The main floor is octagonal with unequal alternate sides, on whose larger sides the stairs and entrance doors are located, while on the short sides are the windows. Then, breaking with the symmetry on one of its large sides, a part of the building juts out, holding the interior stairway. The building is topped off by a slightly raised semi-sperical dome, whose diametre is smaller than the octagon itself.

[...] We are talking here about modernism being quite ornamental, rather like an outer “skin” that is carefully assembled and placed over a classically styled kiosk. Interestingly, its 1923 construction was considered to be quite late on, giving it the appearance of a well rounded modernist project.

Masanet’s attention to detail in the breaking up of the different ceramic tiles is quite remarkable, as they completely cover all the kiosk’s façades, with its structural and compositive elements being of special interest, including the arris pillars, and the recess underlays, over a continual light blue ceramic base. Also worth a special mention are the lead-filled panes of glass on the doors and windows, adorned with floral designs. Some similarities can be drawn between the kiosk’s façade and the main façade on the Gabinete Literario, the work of Masanet together with Fernando Navarro; these similarities are down to the similar materials used, such as the ceramic on the façade and the lead-filled coloured glass in the windows, and the great open areas of the recesses with similar cases of split level carpentry.

One of the strangest elements of the whole structure is the fruit adornments along the cornice, featuring ornate ceramic lemons, bananas and pineapples that overhang. According to Trinidad Simó, this type of ornamental design belongs to traditional Valencia styling, which just happens to be strikingly similar to the modernist ceramic fruit display at the North Railway Station in Valencia, by Demetrio Ribes Marco (1906), in which he plays a small tribute to flourishing agriculture of the time in that region. This is almost certainly down to architect’s Masantet’s birthplace, namely at nearby Levante.

 

 

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